Peter Dallos

I make political art.Having spent my childhood under a fascist regime, my teen years under Soviet occupation and my adulthood in America, I have a deep understanding of the extremes of societal conflict.My art is based on such conflicts, principally depicting the struggle between western civilization and its various detractors; these can be anarchy, nihilism, or external and internal foes.I also look at my work from an ecological stand wherein the struggle is between civilization and the natural responses of a wounded and exploited earth.I like the ambiguity.

My vocabulary is to represent civilization by abstracted, but obviously man-made constructs such as stylized buildings or machines and, frequently, simple non-representational objects.The adversary is a variety of alien-appearing plant forms, ranging from repulsive to beautiful. In some pieces civilization is so solid that its attacker can only probe and explore, but cannot inflict damage.In others, it is capable of eroding, cutting into or entering whatever represents the advanced world.

The majority of the works are maquette size.They are welded steel, some with brass and copper parts or machined aluminum.I make a concerted effort to produce the pieces so that they are fully executed sculptural objects that can be valued devoid of their narrative. I am a self-taught, but by no means naive artist. I base my aesthetics on sixty years of studying and collecting contemporary art.

I have participated in numerous juried group shows and had a solo show in 2012 at Gallery Swarm, Chicago.